Eisei Noiri
Norio Hanafusa
Editors

2014

The word “apheresis” which is of Greek origin, means “taking away” in English. Apheresis is a mode of therapy specifying a certain target and removing it from the body. Given the target of immunoglobulin, antibodies, or virus particles, apheresis constitutes a blood purification therapy that is presumably antithetical to hemodialysis, which is the most popular blood purification therapy worldwide. Although each removes a blood component, hemodialysis is often prescribed to rid the body of uremic toxins, even though the actual uremic toxin targets have not been clarified to date.